The main news of the past week (18.02 – 22.02)

Read about the reasons for the popularity of collectible card games, how much users spent on mobile games in 2012, the difference in revenue between mobile and portable games, and much more in our news digest for last week.

1. Reasons for the popularity of card gamesEven before the release of Rage of Bahamut, Cygames studio was confident in the success of the project on the market, but they, like many others, did not even guess about its future scale, underestimated the mechanics of collectible card mobile games.

What is its secret, read below.

2. Ubuntu has appeared for smartphones and tabletsLast Thursday, a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system became available for download to devices under the Nexus brand.  

3. Reflections on the motives of WandererThe other day there was the release of Wanderer: War Song, a strange project that made us wonder why such games are still appearing on the mobile market.

4. Puzzle & Dragons game earns from $54 to $75 million per month in JapanThe record-breaking performance of the game from GungHo demonstrated the extremely high potential of the mobile market, against which Supercell earnings seem to be far from the largest on iOS and Android.

5. Users spent $9 billion on apps in 2012Newzoo summed up the results of 2012.

According to them, in total, smartphone and tablet users spent $9 billion in 2012. This is 32% more than a year earlier.

6. The secret of the success of Clash of ClansMikhail Katkoff, Supercell Product Manager, spoke at the Winter Nights conference.

In his report, he shed light on the success story of Clash of Clans, told about the difficulties the team faced and what experience it gained in preparing the game for launch.

7. There are more than 221 million iOS and Android gadgets in ChinaChina is one step away from becoming the largest market for active iOS and Android devices in the world.

The number of such gadgets in Russia is much smaller, which does not prevent our homeland from being in the top ten largest mobile device markets.

8. Distimo: the mobile market is not for beginnersFrom August to January, Google Play revenues increased by 107%, during the same period only three new games managed to earn $ 1 million per week, new publishers are hardly entering the market – this and much more is reported by Distimo in its new report.

9. How to create a game that will be played by millions?Sebastian Kreise, Strategic Partnership Manager at Wooga, told at the Winter Nights conference why Diamond Dash has won such success with users, and gave advice on using effective viral mechanics.

10. Comparison of the mobile and portable games marketRevenue from games for portable consoles in the 4th quarter of 2012 was more than revenue from gaming applications for iOS, App Annie c IDC reports in its latest report.